1. Ability of C. muridarum with or without mutations in tc0668 and/or tc0237 to induce hydrosalpinx in C3H/HeJ mice following intravaginal inoculation.
Ability of C. muridarum with or without mutations in tc0668 and/or tc0237 to induce hydrosalpinx in C3H/HeJ mice following intravaginal inoculation. (A) Wild-type (WT) C. muridarum (clone G [TC0668wt/TC0237wt], n = 5, image a) or C. muridarum with a substitution mutation in tc0668 (G [TC0668G322R], n = 5, image b) or tc0237 (G [TC0237Q117E], n = 5, image c), a premature stop codon in tc0668 (G [TC0668G216*], n = 5, image d), substitution mutations in both tc0668 and tc0237 (G [TC0668G322R/TC0237Q117E], n = 5, image e), or a premature stop codon in tc0668 plus the tc0237 substitution mutation (G [TC0668G216*/TC0237Q117E], n = 5, image f) was intravaginally inoculated into female C3H/HeJ mice at 2 × 105 IFUs per mouse. (B) All mice were sacrificed for evaluation of upper genital tract hydrosalpinx pathology (as described in Materials and Methods) on day 56 after inoculation. One representative genital tract image was chosen from each group. The entire genital tract is displayed with the vagina on the left and the oviduct/ovaries on the right. Oviducts with hydrosalpinges are indicated by white arrows. The oviduct/ovary from each side is shown magnified on the right. The hydrosalpinx scores are shown in the magnified images. Hydrosalpinx was scored for severity, and mice with hydrosalpinx were counted for calculation of the incidence rate in each group. Note that all of our mutant C. muridarum organisms produced reduced hydrosalpinx severity and incidence, with a significant reduction for clones G , G , and G (*, P < 0.05; **, P < 0.01; Fisher's exact test for incidence and Wilcoxon rank sum test for score comparison).
Lili Shao et al. Infect. Immun. 2017; doi: /IAI